No. 248.
Señor Romero to Mr. Frelinghuysen.
Washington, July 10, 1882. (Received July 12.)
Mr. Secretary: I have had the honor to receive your note of this date, accompanied by a copy of a communication with its inclosures, which was addressed to you by His Excellency Governor F. A. Tritle, of Arizona Territory, relative to the arrest and expulsion from the Mexican territory of Capt. William J. Ross, a deputy sheriff of Pima county, and a posse comitatus under his command, by order of Gen. Bernardo Reyes, of Sonora, on the 5th day of June last.
You were pleased to furnish me with a statement of the circumstances of this case, which shows, in substance, that Captain Ross was appointed a deputy sheriff of Pima County, and charged with the execution of a warrant for the arrest of certain hostile Indians; that he was soon afterwards appointed captain of the militia of Arizona Territory, and that, with a force of about fifty men, who had been armed as a posse comitatus, he entered the territory of Mexico, whence he addressed a communication to General Terrazas, asking his permission to arrest the Indians; that this communication was received and opened by General Reyes, who summoned him to lay down his arms and leave the territory of Mexico, which Captain Ross and his men were obliged to do.
You are pleased to state in conclusion that Governor Tritle makes the very reasonable request that the arms taken from Captain Ross and his companions may be restored to the authorities of Arizona Territory, and that you think that this may be obtained more speedily and with fewer formalities through my mediation with the military authorities of Sonora than through a formal representation made by the United States legation in the city of Mexico; and that, desiring to terminate this matter in a frank and friendly manner, you abstain from criticizing the course pursued by General Reyes in disarming a party whose mission was one of justice and good-will, and in exposing them to the dangers of a long march through the wilderness.
In reply I have the honor to inform you that as soon as I received information of the affair mentioned by you in your aforesaid note, both through the reports concerning it which were published in the newspapers of this country and through what you were pleased to communicate to me in the interview which I had with you at the Department of State on the 6th instant, I anticipated your wishes by telegraphing the facts of the case to the Government of Mexico, requesting it to issue orders to General Reyes for the immediate restoration of the aforesaid arms to his excellency the governor of Arizona Territory.
[Page 433]I have this day received a telegram from the secretary of foreign relations of Mexico, a copy and translation of which I inclose, bearing date of July 10, in which that officer informs me that, although the war department has no official knowledge of the disarming of the American posse by General Reyes, he has, nevertheless, ordered that, if such posse was disarmed, the arms be restored to the United States forces that may be nearest to the frontier.
This very just request of the United States Government that the aforesaid arms be restored, which request you were pleased to convey to me in your communication of this date, has thus been complied with.
Before concluding this note it seems proper for me to remark that, duly appreciating the frank and friendly spirit expressed by you in your aforesaid note, I think that I shall duly reciprocate it by informing you that, according to the Constitution of the United States of Mexico, it is not allowable for any foreign armed force to enter the national territory without permission from the President of the Republic, granted with the approval of the Senate. Captain Ross not having obtained such permission, it is evident that he had illegally entered the territory of Mexico, and that it was the duty of General Reyes to act as he did.
That officer probably had not sufficient force at his disposal (being engaged in active operations against the hostile Indians) to furnish an escort to Captain Ross and his men as far as the United States frontier, in order to protect them from any attack by the Indians, as it is probable he would have done had he had a sufficient force for that purpose.
The danger to which those citizens of the United States were thus exposed is certainly very much to be regretted, but I do not think that General Reyes, and still less the Mexican Government, can be held responsible therefor.
Neither General Reyes, the commanding officer of the regular force on the frontier, nor General Luis Terrazas, governor of the State of Chihuahua, nor Colonel Joaquin Terrazas (brother of General Luis Terrazas), commander of the local forces sent in pursuit of the Indians, has power to grant permission to a foreign force to enter the territory of Mexico, even if such permission is asked of them, for, as I have already remarked, it can be granted by the President only, with the approval of the Senate.
This cannot, moreover, be considered as an extradition case, because the stipulations of the treaty in force between the two nations, which was signed at the city of Mexico, December 11, 1861, were not therein observed, since, according to that treaty, the arrest of offenders is to be made by the authorities of the country in which it is effected.
I entertain the hope that no case of this kind will occur in future, since both governments have agreed, observing the formalities prescribed by law in this case, that their forces may reciprocally cross to the territory of their respective nations for the purpose of pursuing hostile Indians.
I avail, &c.,